Maybe you’ve noticed … the home improvement market is getting more and more competitive.
That’s not necessarily bad news. It’s partly the result of a strong market for home improvement services. The higher the demand, the more competitors that enter.
It does mean, though, that to attract the high quality leads you want, your paid search efforts need to work harder and more effectively than before.
As a Google Premier Partner, we have an early look at some of the newest features. What follows are those I recommend incorporating into your 2019 paid search strategy.
Audience Targeting
Traditionally, paid search has relied on a handful of basic targeting tactics. Things like keywords, device type (e.g., mobile) and geographic location. All well and good.
However, Google has begun arming advertisers with the ability to target based on more specific demographics. Things like age, gender, education level, household income, and more.
Also, advertisers can now target based on online behavior, helping you reach homeowners when they are close to a purchase decision.
Overall, improved audience targeting means expanded reach and better use of your ad dollars. Together, these sharpen your focus and help you identify homeowners who might have previously been overlooked.
Improved Ad Capabilities
Better audience targeting puts you in front of the right homeowners at the right time. Google’s new ad capabilities, on the other hand, make the ads themselves more effective. These include:
• Promotion extensions. As the name suggests, these literally “extend” the size of your ad below the main portion of your ad. These can be used to highlight sales and offers, here is an example:
• Responsive ads. Although still technically in beta, responsive ads allow you to create multiple headlines and text for a given ad. Then, Google will automatically test different combinations, continually improving your results by displaying the ones that perform best.
Third-Party Branded Reviews
Customer reviews have always mattered. But as the competition grows and homeowners become more web savvy, they are less swayed by static questionable copy-and-pasted testimonials on a website. Third-party reviews demonstrate authenticity and build trust for the potential customer. We recommend including branded reviews that appear next to the landing page form within a “widget” that constantly updates with authentic, real time customer reviews from reputable sources, such as Google, Yelp, or industry-specific partners.
Working with GuildQuality, one of our strategic partners and the home improvement industry’s leader in performance measurement, we recently tested the effect of branded reviews on our landing pages. Even we were surprised by the results: Conversion rate improvements were as high as 86%, depending on the service type.
The Landscape is Forever Changing
Paid search advertising has been around for nearly 20 years. But it changes continually, as new technologies are developed, new devices become fashionable, and homeowner sophistication and expectations evolve.
Successful home improvement companies get the leads they need by working hard, staying current and adjusting as the world changes.
